[khaltire]

Hey guys, haven't written in a while but I've received good general feedback on all the articles I post. Here's another about the general poor attitude towards the PlayBook. I promise its a good read Check it out.

Why all the unnecessary hate towards the PlayBook? | Ask-Kal.com -- Dedicated Gadget Blog

Lately, I’ve been noticing a lot of animosity towards the PlayBook. I can understand this a bit since the tablet received a slew of not-so-amazing reviews yesterday. If you do in fact read through them all, overall, the general consensus of the reviews seems to be good. There are, however, several things that hold the reviewers back from recommending it at this time. That’s perfectly understandable, and I can agree with that. Reading several reviews, I noticed that they all seem to say the same thing: the PlayBook has great hardware, lots of power, a great OS and fantastic UI, but falls short for software related reasons. There are hardly any applications specific to the PlayBook at launch, and the ones that do exist are poorly done and feel rushed. E-Mail support is completely missing unless you have a BlackBerry, which I believe is just silly on RIM’s part. Also, the damn power button keeps popping up in every review, and not in a good way. Luckily, this will be fixed according to RIM as the button will be slightly raised from the the casing. Cool. As for the inability to e-mail, that’s a serious blunder on RIM’s part. I definitely think after all this time, RIM should have figured it out, especially when they are hailed to be the king of e-mail. Also, poor app support is understandable, but I was really hoping for Android support right out of the box once I do my required over the air update. That’s not going to happen, unfortunately. I am finding out that that capability won’t be available till summer. That’s very disappointing, as I was excited for that, perhaps more than anything. These are some of the reasons why people are calling the PlayBook a rushed tablet. In reality though, RIM was rumored to have been working on this well before the iPad, so this really surprises me.

But back to my main point. I definitely assumed there would be some struggles for RIM to get into the tablet market, that’s a given. And I definitely feel like they made some poor choices, ones that will make penetration into the market that much harder for them. What I didn’t expect was the level of unnecessary hatred for absolutely no reason from people who live and breathe Apple. I read on forums about the Apple users laughing at how the tablet is a failure and RIM is going to be bankrupt and this and that. It’s really quite comical. Nobody is going bankrupt and it’s unlikely that any of these big giants ever will, that includes RIM. I also had someone post on my Facebook wall saying “the PlayBook got bad reviews ” because she knew I wanted one. Shortly after, someone responded “obviously – such a joke”. I responded to this comment saying “But everyone I’ve talked to who used it loved it. Also, the people that reviewed it had tester units with buggy software. And most of their complaints were software related. Which will be fixed. I’m still getting it”. This made me think. What makes people inclined to think a brand new product and RIM’s first ever tablet is automatically a joke? Because it’s not an iPad? I don’t remember anyone ever calling the Samsung Galaxy Tab or the Motorola Xoom a joke. I definitely agree with the sentiment I’ve been hearing: it does seem like BlackBerry definitely gets more hate than other brands. I don’t get why people can’t see it differently. Don’t they realize that more competition equals a win for consumers?



Back to my Facebook wall, where the person calling the PlayBook a joke then responded to my comment. It’s a bit of a longer one, a more ‘educated’ comeback if you will:

"The PlayBook isn’t a tablet. It is BlackBerry going “our phones can’t compete in the smartphone arena (see 2010 sales), so let’s try to make something a little better than a smartphone, a little bigger. It’s not a smartphone, it’s not a tablet, it’s a BlackBerry product…Maybe if their CEO concentrated on building better, competitive products rather than trying to buy hockey teams they’d be doing better."

I don’t really know what the statement means really but seems like its fueled by unnecessary hatred towards RIM. I didn’t really want to respond to that because it’ll would just be back and forth. And it’s also clear that this person is not viewing things from an unbiased perspective. There’s two sides to everything. Apple claims their tablet offers an amazing web experience when it can’t experience the web at all. That’s one of the things I’d want in a tablet and therefore never considered an iPad. It was also too big, and I didn’t like the low resolution screen. I am definitely tired of iOS’s boring look and I’m not really interested in having a blown up, less functional version of of an iPhone 4 on a tablet.. That said, I agree with the poster’s sentiment about RIM’s lack of innovation when it comes to smartphones and this is one of my biggest complaints. They’re releasing several phones at BlackBerry World; that’s taking a step in the right direction. They’re getting the right idea but I don’t think its soon enough. I’ve tried all types of phones, and know a lot about each. I always make an educated decision on what I think will work for me. A lot of people tend to be blinded by the “Apple is the greatest” mentality. And don’t get me wrong, I’ve been using Apple products since 1991, decades before most users ever jumped on the train, so believe me, I know they are. But it’s just getting crazy now! When I see normal people commenting about how the PlayBook sucks and clearly they don’t have much understanding of the industry, now that’s a whole new level of people drinking that ever so sweet Apple juice.

[1812dave]

All that should matter to you (IMO) is whether or not a product suits YOUR needs. Why fret over someone else's opinion of said product? I suggest not losing sleep over the "hate" you feel others have towards the PB.

[khaltire]

believe me i dont. it really amazes me though! i still have one on preorder and im getting it regardless, as seen in my post

[1812dave]

believe me i dont. it really amazes me though! i still have one on preorder and im getting it regardless, as seen in my post

and I hope you have a lot of fun with it. I think it will improve as they drop OS updates.

[doug1010]

Ya, I've seen many petty and juvenile people posting. (not just here) Sad really. Maybe they actually are just little kids. If that's not the case, it's even more sad. Feels like a video game "discussion" sometimes, with people saying "nintendo sucks, sony is better" etc etc

As Dave was mentioning, about the product meeting your needs: I tried it out, read some reviews. I liked it, and it does the things I want it to do. So I'm happy, and am looking forward to getting mine. Can't wait to see what each new update will bring.

[TheScionicMan]

I always think of this Calvin & Hobbes strip when this question comes up:



Some people love to embrace anger and express it with extreme statements to get attention...

[grncherry1]

I think some of the rudeness and distaste of the BB brand comes from this forum somewhat also. If anyone voices any disagreement here against a device or one of the regulars here they are immediately labeled a troll or something. Any other device is called a "Toy",especially the Apple products. And clearly the IPad is not a toy, it is seen at work on T.V. and elsewhere everyday.

Hypocrisy is rampant here also, I distinctly remember the "who needs apps" fad that was going around this forum for a long while, now all the rage is "we want apps". And where are they coming from, the Android market, and all of a sudden they are ok.

Now when all the arrogance comes back to bite, it's "why are the reviews bad" and "why is everybody bad mouthing RIM".

The PB is no better or worse than many of the other tabs being released now and the average consumer could care less if RIM has released one. The only people that care are the ones that frequent these forums. The PB is nothing special, if it was released a year ago, maybe, now it is just another device in the pack.

[Cynn]

It's simple! Apple Fanboys and Google Fanboys only hate one thing more than each other... RIM. They seem to quite enjoy teaming up to spread hate.

[Najo]

I think some of the rudeness and distaste of the BB brand comes from this forum somewhat also. If anyone voices any disagreement here against a device or one of the regulars here they are immediately labeled a troll or something. Any other device is called a "Toy",especially the Apple products. And clearly the IPad is not a toy, it is seen at work on T.V. and elsewhere everyday.

Hypocrisy is rampant here also, I distinctly remember the "who needs apps" fad that was going around this forum for a long while, now all the rage is "we want apps". And where are they coming from, the Android market, and all of a sudden they are ok.

Now when all the arrogance comes back to bite, it's "why are the reviews bad" and "why is everybody bad mouthing RIM".

The PB is no better or worse than many of the other tabs being released now and the average consumer could care less if RIM has released one. The only people that care are the ones that frequent these forums. The PB is nothing special, if it was released a year ago, maybe, now it is just another device in the pack.

The other contributer often seen on these forums, is that we are more critical of the product that everyone, haters aside. We get all pumped up for a product and if it does not fit into the box that we have created for it then everyone starts screaming fail!!! Nature of the beast I suppose, I manage several projects, and think that my team comes up with some great solutions, but someone will always verbally tear it apart after the fact, thinking they would have done it better.

It is easy to crucify products when they are released, if that is your desire, instead of really stepping back and looking at the marvel of tech, what has actually been created, and looking at the positives, rather than continually being negative.

[Zizzzzy]

Apple is notorious for smear campaign advertising, which rubs off that attitude to its users base. That and the fact that society has evolved into a bunch of narcissistic attention seeking **** cakes that thrive on pointing out others short comings to make themselves feel good.

[Najo]

Apple is notorious for smear campaign advertising, which rubs off that attitude to its users base. That and the fact that society has evolved into a bunch of narcissistic attention seeking **** cakes that thrive on pointing out others short comings to make themselves feel good.

Ha, I sometimes wonder if Apple pays people to trash the forums when new devices are released, seems they show up out of nowhere!! And since they hire people to go into the stores to make them look busy, it would not surprise me.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[EGerhardt]

Ha, I sometimes wonder if Apple pays people to trash the forums when new devices are released, seems they show up out of nowhere!! And since they hire people to go into the stores to make them look busy, it would not surprise me.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

I guess you never know.

Thing is that the apple fans trash ANYTHING non-apple. Be it PCs, android, non-ipod music players. Anything. Because apples one cost so much that if its not better why the **** did it cost so much, and why the **** did everyone ooze about how amazing it was (seriously go read an Engadget iProduct vs anything, even stuff that's blatantly better hardware) ?

Ok, thats kinda a cheap shot, but if you have spent easily double the value of the machine on you mac, then got a couple of different generations of iPods and probably a couple of different iPhones and maybe even an iPad... Basically when you have spent more than my car cost on consumer electronics none of which is especially world changing, you feel the need to defend your choices to the world. Apple makes ok stuff, but they haven't blown anyone anyway since the first gen iPhone.

On the other end of the spectrum, android is warming up to own the world and to bulldoze anything in front of it. Droid fans rampantly believe that the only measure of a smartphone or tablet is its spec sheet, and that tiny little issues like battery life and actually working properly out the box isn't worth mentioning. I kinda agree tbh, I love the balls off my Galaxy S while I had it, SO much fun playing with. But I was jonesing for push email and a battery that lasted all day. Oh and less frikkin widgets.

So apple hate the playbook because its not an iPad, put simply. They hate RIM because no matter how hard they try and say they are better, RIM has outsold apple consistently.

Android doesn't like the PB because its closed source, and because although its obviously at the very least 'good solid hardware' it's not doing anything new and exciting from the hardware point of view.

On a similar topic:

Did any of the reviews being negative to the playbook even touch on WHY it doesn't have native email ?

It strikes me that the loud mouthed ****** factory that is the tech journalism world has no interest or even knowledge of the importance of security or enterprise functionality.

The bottom line is that RIM wants to sell about 25% of its units to consumers, and the rest to governments and businesses that already are built on the back of enterprise server. Those guys are MENTAL about security and I believe that is why RIM made bridge the way they did.

So what if it screws consumers a tiny bit. Practically no-one needs email on their tablet anyway. No matter what, you will always be carrying your phone and your tablet, because even if you have a 3g tablet that actually has the capability to make and receive calls chances are that everyone calls you on your phone anyway.

But the tech journalists slam anything so shocking as designing your product with a non-casual non-consumer in mind. Almost no blackberries have had good reviews since there have been other actual smartphones, and yet they have been quietly incredibly successful for years because they aren't made to impress journalists, they are to impress the state department and the army and such.

[OMGitworks]

Ha, I sometimes wonder if Apple pays people to trash the forums when new devices are released, seems they show up out of nowhere!! And since they hire people to go into the stores to make them look busy, it would not surprise me.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

I seriously doubt they were paying the tens of thousands (maybe more) of people who lined up day after day for the IPAD2, a second gen product. Let's see what April 19 looks like in comparison and the first week and month sales numbers.

[Zizzzzy]

The bottom line is that RIM wants to sell about 25% of its units to consumers, and the rest to governments and businesses that already are built on the back of enterprise server. Those guys are MENTAL about security and I believe that is why RIM made bridge the way they did.

This is the biggest part that people are overlooking. RIM is not trying to come out of the gate and compete in the consumer world against the competition. They are trying to place themselves to maintain the niche they already have with the 250,000 corps and 60 million blackberry users that use the devices solely for the unmatched security.

While it may stunt them a bit when trying to merge into the consumer market, it is smart for them to put a new foundation under what RIM is all about, instead of just trying to appeal to consumer expectations.

Round two of this device with 3/4g later this year will be more of a consumer campaign I suspect once development catches up in the OS/apps side of things.

[gravymonster]

I think the smartphone/tech market is shaping up almost like sports. Everyone has a favorite team and people like to trash talk the other.

And even teams that always do poorly still have fans.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Hankster]

This is the biggest part that people are overlooking. RIM is not trying to come out of the gate and compete in the consumer world against the competition. They are trying to place themselves to maintain the niche they already have with the 250,000 corps and 60 million blackberry users that use the devices solely for the unmatched security.

That would be incorrect. RIM is targeting consumers. Look at the commercials and ads, they are NOT targeting corporations anymore. Businesses don't want/need movies and music on their devices. They also don't need "apps" and other software that primarily appeals to consumers.

Also, look at the data. More and more companies are LEAVING RIM and using Android and Apple. RIM is not that much more secure than the rest of the field anymore. Just look at the data, it shows the trends.

[TheScionicMan]

I seriously doubt they were paying the tens of thousands (maybe more) of people who lined up day after day for the IPAD2, a second gen product. Let's see what April 19 looks like in comparison and the first week and month sales numbers.

But a few shipments of adequate amounts and there would be no need for "day-after-day" lines. None of the VZW stores I checked with had even gotten any devices at launch. They were all trying to order it for you and have it shipped.

We just ordered a couple of iPad2s through our ATT rep. He said there was a 3-5 week wait time so the sooner the order is in, the better... They arrived in 6 days.

Don't believe the hype...

[r.santa1]

I love RIM and strongly believe that this PB will not do as well as they think...late to the party and inadequate at launch ain't a very good combo folks. It will be way to fragmented and complex for the masses (dumb asses). Should have been super simple to start with a 10 in screen, bbm, email and a great browser. SIMPLICITY is why the ipad went nuts..young, old and everyone in between can pick it up and use it. The PB as i see it will have people wanting to toss it out the window from the get go..low memory, seriously???
If they do a 10 in, have it dumbed down it will sell..if not, bye bye PB

[1812dave]

The 7" screen only gets 6 hours of battery life. How the heck are they ever going to release a 10" model?

ah, that would come under the heading of, "A LARGER BATTERY".

[Najo]

The 7" screen only gets 6 hours of battery life. How the heck are they ever going to release a 10" model?

Funny, every time you post something about battery life, you shave a bit more off the number...

[Najo]

Ha, I sometimes wonder if Apple pays people to trash the forums when new devices are released, seems they show up out of nowhere!! And since they hire people to go into the stores to make them look busy, it would not surprise me.

I seriously doubt they were paying the tens of thousands (maybe more) of people who lined up day after day for the IPAD2, a second gen product. Let's see what April 19 looks like in comparison and the first week and month sales numbers.

I was not referring to the over hyped release, with no supply. I was speaking of day to day activity. And I would not stand in line for the PB if there was one, I have a career.

[gurugeek]

It's simple! because it objectively sucks. The ipad is not too big (tried to read a newspaper on the ipad) and the missing email application on a blackberry tablet makes it, by definition, a big joke. The Galaxy was not called a joke as it had the camera before the ipad and obviously an email application.

[TheScionicMan]

It's simple! because it objectively sucks. The ipad is not too big (tried to read a newspaper on the ipad) and the missing email application on a blackberry tablet makes it, by definition, a big joke. The Galaxy was not called a joke as it had the camera before the ipad and obviously an email application.

Despite your attempt to present your opinions as "fact", its merely a subjective viewpoint.

[gurugeek]

Well not so subjective: read the Financial Times Friday 15 April "Blackberry Playbook: the tablet without e-mail" hardly a good review. I could quote another 20 or so..
but no worries if denial is the answer I accept it.

[greggebhardt]

It takes a lot of balls to introduce a new tablet these days. I have been with RIM from the days when the 950 was like magic. I have ordered but have my doubts about them being to sell enough units to be able to call it a success.

RIM's day of rule are over as they are now have to compete for the savvy consumer who has a lot of hardware to choose from. RIM trying to be "cutting edge" is new to them and they are struggling.